Examples of artists who found God...and then got better

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Usually, I think, we associate finding God with an artistic decline, like in the case of Smokey Robinson. But there have to be a few examples of artists who "found" God and then got even better. I guess a pretty good example would be John Coltrane, what are some others?

― Harrison Barr (Petar), Thursday, 11 May 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

First person to mention Sufjan Stevens gets a fucking slap.

― John Justen (johnjusten), Thursday, 11 May 2006 00:22 (nineteen years ago)

That would be you then?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Thursday, 11 May 2006 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

PWN3D

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:08 (nineteen years ago)

chirp chirp go the crickets...

― hector savage, Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:09 (nineteen years ago)

Thomas Tallis

― Masked Gazza, Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:11 (nineteen years ago)

his name is alive were better when they were godly. but they strayed from the flock, so not really answering the question.

― keyth (keyth), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:18 (nineteen years ago)

Most musicians were not very good until they find God:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_Catholic_Church_musicians

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Anglican_church_composers

unless you mean contemporary artists, in which case the moral argument holds up but not the aesthetic one, necessarily.

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:30 (nineteen years ago)

woops found God.

Taking sides: Cat Stevens vs. Yusuf Islam.

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:34 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, I do mean contemporary musicians. I guess that's a pretty vague term, in a sense I mean cases where an artist wasn't outspokenly religious or spiritual, had an awakening of sorts, became religious (or outspokena bout being religious) and quality of artistic output actually increased.

I'm just curious if this has happened..I'm certainly not religious, but the impact of religious awakenings on the art of musicians is I guess, pretty interestign to me.

― Harrison Barr (Petar), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:38 (nineteen years ago)

Momus

― timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:41 (nineteen years ago)

Al Green!

The inverse: George Harrison.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:46 (nineteen years ago)

Well not a musician, but Thomas Merton's 'Seven Storey Mountain' is a beautiful book about his conversion to Roman Catholicism, and it certainly eclipsed anything he wrote before his conversion. His books increased and improved the longer he lived his very religious life. So I guess he serves as one good example.

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:47 (nineteen years ago)

Mr. T is a a born-again Christian, but I wouldn't rank his post-conversion work above his pre-conversion work.

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

Clubber Lang is hard to top.

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Thursday, 11 May 2006 01:48 (nineteen years ago)

U2? Wasn't it right around "The Joshua Tree" that they really started exploring charismatic Christianity?

Nick Cave?

Johnny Cash? Well, no, not immediately better, but I don't think his final few albums would have been as good had he not been a man of God.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 11 May 2006 02:01 (nineteen years ago)

U2 ripped a song straight out of Psalms, 4 years before "The Joshua Tree." It also happened to be on their best album.

― nicky lo-fi (nicky lo-fi), Thursday, 11 May 2006 05:03 (nineteen years ago)

and come on, "gloria"

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 05:10 (nineteen years ago)

in fact, all of october.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 11 May 2006 05:16 (nineteen years ago)

Wasn't Dylan's mid 70s revival related to the fact that he found god?

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:01 (nineteen years ago)

Mark Hollis/Talk Talk

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 11 May 2006 07:07 (nineteen years ago)

David Sylvian around '82-'83 (kicked his solo career in full gear).
much less obviously, Robert Wyatt after becoming paralysed.
I suspect Arvo Part got better too.

― Max Blazevic (kitaj), Thursday, 11 May 2006 09:33 (nineteen years ago)

I guess a pretty good example would be John Coltrane, what are some others?

Er, did he ever lose God in the first place?

I would argue Nas, but I might be alone in that. And I don't like some of his more fundie beliefs (homophobia, anti-abortion sentiments), but I do like his music better after he turned to preaching.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 11 May 2006 10:03 (nineteen years ago)

God's Son is one of my favourite LP's of the 00's.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 11 May 2006 10:04 (nineteen years ago)

x-post U2 was always Christian, but it was around "The Joshua Tree" that they became so super Christian they considered throwing it in to be full-time followers. They supposedly had to be talked out of it.

― Josh in Chicago (Josh in Chicago), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

Nick Cave
Ian Brown
David Berkowitz

― Doktor Faustus (noodle vague), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

Richard & Linda Thompson (Pour Down Like Silver is my fave of theirs)

― Have you been to the English deer park? (teenagequiet), Thursday, 11 May 2006 13:45 (nineteen years ago)

maria mckee...she became a born-again christian not long before making her far-and-away best solo album life is sweet.

― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Thursday, 11 May 2006 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

Todd Edwards, but my guess would be that he "found" god even before he started making music.

― scnnr drkly (scnnr drkly), Thursday, 11 May 2006 14:24 (nineteen years ago)

Prince, maybe?...many consider "Sign O' The Times" to be his peak, and I think that's his first LP with overtly religious references...("Let's Go Crazy"'s afterlife notwithstanding)...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 11 May 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

Mase?

And are we saying "better than they were immediately before finding God" or "better than they have ever been"?

― Eppy (Eppy), Thursday, 11 May 2006 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

Haha, first I thought the "and then got better" in the thread title was referring to "healing from the sickness that is Christianity"

― like murderinging (modestmickey), Thursday, 11 May 2006 17:32 (nineteen years ago)

U2 was always Christian, but it was around "The Joshua Tree" that they became so super Christian they considered throwing it in to be full-time followers. They supposedly had to be talked out of it

No, this was around the time of October. It took their manager Paul McGuinness and a horrified Adam Clayton to preach the wonders of apostasy.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 11 May 2006 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

john coltrane

― JB Young (JB Young), Thursday, 11 May 2006 23:35 (nineteen years ago)

Johann Sebastian Bach

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 12 May 2006 00:50 (nineteen years ago)

I have been reading about Danielson recently. To what extent does Christianity figure into his aesthetics?

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Friday, 12 May 2006 02:03 (nineteen years ago)

I have been reading about Danielson recently. To what extent does Christianity figure into his aesthetic?

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Friday, 12 May 2006 02:03 (nineteen years ago)

Or, for that matter, how has it informed his career?

(For those who pay attention to such things...Anyone?)

― The Boy Who Cried YSI? (Freud Junior), Friday, 12 May 2006 02:04 (nineteen years ago)

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